Popping back into Europe again for the first time in about five years reminded me all over again of how universal some ideas are. Such as this - the blue ceilings in corners of 800-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, scattered with golden stars. The first time I saw this idea was in Egyptian temples - thousands of years old - painted in a time when the ancients believed that stars winking in the heavens were the souls of the dead. In Rome a few weeks ago I gazed up at Michelangelo's stunning ceiling in the Sistine Chapel and learnt for the first time that before he started his mammoth four-year paint job in 1508, it too was simply a blue ceiling covered with gold stars. Deep blue sky and stars - it's the one thing every person in every nation on Earth shares as a canopy. And before electric light, how familiar it must have been. Gazing skywards, by night or day, can give us time to dream and plan and, as we so often call it, 'reach for the stars'. All these years later it still looks wonderful and still works perfectly as inspiration for anyone who's dreamed big.

Backgrounder

Hi, I'm Lindsey Dawson. I write books and do some writer mentoring. And on the side I wonder why it is that blue is the world's most popular colour. Maybe it's because I've had my share of 'bolts from the blue' that hit all of us from time to time - the potent taps on the shoulder that come along to make us pay attention to living big and shining bright. For after all, small and dull isn't what we came here for, huh? There's more here.